Advent
December 7, 2014

Scripture Reading: Mark 1:1-8

[John the Baptist] proclaimed, ‘The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’ — Mark 1:7-8

It always seems ironic to me when the Sunday identified as Peace Sunday in some traditions occurs on the anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Jesus has been identified as the Prince of Peace and yet war has been a constant in our lives that has ebbed and flowed ever since he was born.

What is this power that John the Baptist identified as a primary trait of Jesus and what does it mean to be baptized with the Holy Spirit? What is the power of peace?

My regular Tuesday yoga teacher was out of town recently and a substitute who was new to me subbed. We normally start the class when some general stretching and close with a time of quite meditation. The sub said she would like to start with a meditative period, if we didn’t mind. She instructed us how to sit for this part and exactly at the moment our quiet time began, the song, What Wondrous Love is This (Author Unknown) was played. It was a very simple arrangement sung by a beautiful voice. It was a surprise and it was peace.

The ultimate love of God is the power to which John the Baptist is referring and to be baptized by the Holy Spirit means to enter into a partnership with God through Jesus Christ to be a conduit for God’s love even through our fragile and sometimes broken bodies made of clay. It is a trust beyond our ability to trust and a strength beyond our own power. While it is shared with us as individuals, it is provided in such a manner that it creates the synergy of Christ when two or more of us gather together in Christ name. When that all comes together for all of God’s children we will know the peace of God.

Prayer: Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.

  O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.* Amen.

*By Saint Francis of Assissi, See at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer_of_Saint_Francis
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.